Ali Riaz, vice-chairman of the National Consensus Commission, has been made a special assistant of Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus.

He gains the rank and status of an advisor of the interim government. Riaz will enjoy the salary, allowances and privileges equivalent to those of an advisor.

The Cabinet Division issued a notification on Thursday confirmed the appointment. With his appointment, the number of special assistants to the chief advisor now stands at nine.

After last year’s mass uprising, Yunus administration assumed the interim role and initially formed six reform commission. Among them, Ali Riaz, a professor at the Political Science Department of Illinois State University, was appointed head of the Constitutional Reform Commission.

This Reform Commission was tasked to consider and take the recommendations of six reform commissions.

Later, he served as vice-chairman of the Consensus Commission -- responsible to coordinate political consensus to drive state reform initiatives.

The Consensus Commission’s tenure ended in October with the drafting of the July National Charter.